


Father Figure

by MindfulWrath



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Dad Merle, Gen, Lunar Interlude Spoilers, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-19
Updated: 2016-10-19
Packaged: 2018-08-23 08:44:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8321386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MindfulWrath/pseuds/MindfulWrath
Summary: Merle knows he's not a good father. Others are not so sure.





	

It's much easier not to be a father. Adventuring is simpler, more straightforward. Maybe not harder to screw up, but at least the people he's screwing up and getting killed aren't his _kids._ They're just somebody else's kids. He tries not to think about that.

"Didja pack your lunch?" he asks, frowning at Magnus.

"You mean my _rations?"_ Magnus says, skeptical.

"Yeah yeah, sure, that's what I meant. But didja pack 'em? Don't wanna have to turn this puppy around halfway because somebody forgot their _luuuuuunch."_ He slaps the glass sphere, making a _toong_ noise.

"Yes, I have my rations," Magnus says, rolling his eyes.

"Taako?" Merle prompts, fixing him with a piercing gaze. Taako does not stop examining his fingernails.

"Hm?" he says, absent.

"Didja pack your rations?"

"Yuh-huh, sure, yep, all hunky-dory," says Taako.

"Okay, and did everybody _go_ already? 'Cause if it takes a long time to—"

 _"O-_ kay, let's just get in the sphere," says Magnus, climbing inside as he shakes his head. Merle herds Taako inside and gets in last. Avi closes the door behind him and waves goodbye.

The ride down to the surface takes a long time, their trajectory far more longitudinal than vertical. Merle looks out the window and points out neat birds to Magnus and Taako. At one point he tries to start a sing-a-long but that ends abruptly when Taako tries to smother him with his own beard. Magnus is highly amused.

"So _before_ we get down there," Magnus says, when Taako has decided that Merle is allowed to live (as long as he doesn't start singing _The Wheels On The Bus_ again). "If one of those red-robe guys shows up again, uh. . . ."

He trails off, and there is something guarded in his expression. He scratches his arm.

"Do we trust 'em?" Merle guesses. Magnus nods. "Well, y'know boys, I don't know about that. I'm not really a fan of trustin' people who tell me to trust 'em without giving a reason."

"Oh, you mean like the Director?" Taako says, raising his eyebrows.

"Okay, wise guy, what do _you_ think we should do?"

Taako shrugs. "Hear him out? And then if we don't like what he says, we turn him into bacon."

Magnus fidgets again, looking pained.

"I—I really don't know about that," he says. "None of these red-robe guys have ever done anything to us. A-and we don't, really, know anything about them. Except what the . . . the Director's told us."

"So?" says Taako.

"So—so maybe we don't know everything, I don't know," says Magnus, irritated. "I just don't think our solution to everything should be _murder."_

"Why not? It works, like, eighty percent of the time," says Taako.

"Yeah, I'm sure _you_ sleep great at night with all those deaths on your consc—"

Merle just barely manages to catch Taako's arm before he fires off the spell. It fizzles on his fingertips, smelling of burnt hair. Magnus's hand is on Railsplitter, white-knuckled.

"All right, okay, _boys,"_ Merle warns. "Don't pick at each other when you can't walk away. We gotta all try to get along in the sphere, so we don't do anything we're gonna regret later."

"Oh, he's gonna regret it later," Taako says. There are sparks in his eyes, and his smile is vicious.

"Well, yeah, okay, because he talked without thinking and said something very insensitive," said Merle, eyeing Magnus. "Isn't that right, Magnus?"

Magnus grumbles something and folds his arms.

"And Taako," Merle goes on, turning the Look on him. "I think maybe you were a little insensitive to Magnus, too. I think both of you oughtta apologize to each other."

Both of them mutter, looking in opposite directions like a pair of cats.

"Okaaaaay, Magnus, how about you go first," Merle says.

"Sorry," Magnus mumbles.

"Very good! And Taako?"

"Sorry or whatever, I guess," says Taako, rolling his eyes.

"Now come on, that wasn't very sincere," Merle says. "Try again."

Taako heaves a sigh and says, "Sorry, Magnus."

"Great! Good job, both of you." He goes back to his seat and kicks his feet. "Now. About them red robes. Magnus, you really think we oughtta give 'em a chance?"

"I think it can't hurt," says Magnus, although that guarded expression is back on his face.

"Well, I think that's reasonable. That sounds like pretty much what Taako was sayin', too. Me, I think it might be worth it."

"How come?" Taako asks, frowning.

He swishes some air around in his cheeks.

"Weeeeell, let's just say I had a little encounter with one and it . . . it went pretty well," he says. It's much easier not to be a father.

"You _did?_ What happened?" Magnus cries.

Merle waves a hand. "It's really not important. He didn't _say_ anything, he just kind of—well, turned up, saved a couple lives, and then left, you know? Nothing—nothing _personal,_ haha."

"Right," says Magnus.

The rest of the descent goes pleasantly. Taako doesn't exactly remember to pull the lever, but he does it when Merle gently reminds him. They only crash a little, in the middle of some light woods. Merle is a tad unsteady on his way out of the sphere.

"Before we get goin'," says Merle. The other two turn to face him.

"What?" says Magnus. Taako arches a brow.

"Well, I just wanted to say: you boys be careful out there," Merle says, clapping a hand on Taako's elbow and Magnus's forearm—that's the closest he can get to their shoulders. "And no matter what happens, just know: I'm proud of ya."

"Okay, thanks _Dad,"_ Magnus drawls, rolling his eyes. He's blushing. "C'mon, let's get to it."

Magnus and Taako tromp off into the woods, but Merle hangs back. There's a lump in his throat and his vision has gone misty.

"Dad," he says. "Heh."

He follows them, lighter than he's felt in years.


End file.
